Hello Local Guides,
On March 27th, I conducted a meetup to celebrate International Women’s Day and this is the recap. I hope you like it. This meetup is in honor of the month long celebration of women, the actual International Women’s Day celebrates it all over the globes on March 8.
I would like to say a heart-felt thank you to our Guest Speaker, Nada Dalgamouni, and all attendees who came to my meetup, also to the persons behind the scene, Rahmat and Keith. All of you have made the meetup successful.
The meetup started at 9:00 am (Michigan time) on Saturday, March 27th. The attendees who present were women and men. Thank you to you all beautiful Ladies and thank you to the men who showed up to support my meetup. The benefits of this meetup are not just for women but men who also have wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, nieces, grand-daughters or even aunties.
Some of the attendees are from US (Sonia, Jayasimha, Keith) - Indonesia (Devi, Doc Dell, Indah, Nyai, Ratri, Miftahul Iman, Rahmat) - India (Rosy, Guru Priya, Sophie, Arati, Tejal, Shreeya, Dr Alwy, Kalyan, Jyes, Deepak,Traveler G, Anil, Harsha Reddy) - Kenya (Zuhra) - Nigeria (Ewaade) – Bangladesh (Md Reazul, Ahmad Ullah) - Pakistan (Kashif, Bilal) - Spain (David) - Thailand (Ant) - Fatima - Niha Sholehah - Shirish Khairnar - Sreenathpesala Pandurangam - Pratik Tanna.
When I was planning to have a meetup to celebrate Women’s Month, Nada’s name popped up in my mind. I do not think of any other name that can represent women in general. She has been active with all her effort and dedication to unite and bridge the differences for children from different Nations to create peace in this world.
A couple years back before Covid started separating us from any and all activities we love to do, the Indonesia traditional dance group, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, (where I am one of the dancers) was invited by Southfield International Dance Festival where Nada was the President of the event. There are many different countries performing traditional dances complete with their beautiful traditional outfit. The event lasted all weekend. One day at the stage, the moment before the dance started I looked at the audience who filled up the big room. It came across to my mind how in the heck she managed to unite these people. Not just the dance but also stands selling traditional handcrafted, traditional foods, nicknacks, you name it. This is a short story on how I got connected with Nada. The more I read about her professional biography the more amazed I am.
Nada is an extraordinary person with an extraordinary story. She is a successful immigrant woman from Jordan and she helps the Detroit Metropolitan Arab American community immensely. Here is her YouTube interview with the Local TV.
Her success story from being a teacher to getting a scholarship to continue her education in the US, with no basic English skills, she learned English at ESL (english for second language) until she became who she is now.
I asked her questions about who she was, who she is, and who she wants to be. With her happy, easy going, very enthusiastic personality she answers all my questions. She also elaborated on her role as the CEO or Founder of the World in America, a twice Nominee for Nobel Peace Prize Detroit Michigan, and a Global Educator Director for the International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit.
She also responded to attendees’ questions.
Indah asked “what will be the best way to teach our kids about the beauty of diversity, amidst the rise of super-nationalism and many bad examples of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance in many parts of the world?”
Rosy asked “if Nada ever accomplished her goal and if Nada ever felt demotivated if someone tried to talk her down?”
Dr. Alwy asked “As a woman did you face discrimination or more struggles while helping the children? Did you have to fight the patriarchal system?”
Shreenathpesala Pandurangam asked “At which point you (Nada) thought you have achieved?”
Nada also answered questions directly from Guru Priya, Ratri, and others.
The meetup was so alive. Attendees and Guest Speaker got involved with Q&A. Last question for Nada “what advice can you give to women of the world?” Find out her answer in a YouTube video recorded from the meetup HERE for more detail.
Some very inspiring written comments in the chat room from:
Sonia - quoted “Like Napoleon said, give me a good mother and I will you a good nation”
Rosy - quoted “if a woman is educated whole family is educated”
Some thank you comments written in the chat room:
Indah thanks Nada … “keep up the wonderful works and your beautiful heart! The world needs you …”
Doc Dell said: “You are so humble, Nada”
Devi said: thank you for a lovely quote “be who you are”
Anil said: thanks for inspiring all of us …
Dr. Alwy said “she just wants to keep everything she heard from Nada in her heart forever.”
Zuhra said “she just got a chance to meet Nada and that she is so happy and grateful.”
My special thank you to Traveler G for being here I know it passed your bed time. Keep healthy TG Sir!
Nada believes that never ever stop trying on something good and never give up. If you fall you have to get up and start it again.
All that beautiful advice makes me wonder if that is the reason she is so healthy physically and mentally even though she reveals her true age to us. What a beautiful person inside and out and always try to do good for others. “Never stop dreaming,” said Nada.
Anil, Ewaade, and Shreeya joined the meetup late and made the meetup more sparkle. After the meetup Anil mentioned to me why he was late and that the topic is related to his project he is working on right now.
Once again thank you all for your time to support this meetup. Nada said “she is so happy to be able to be around wonderful Local Guides from all over the world”. She said “can’t wait to have another meetup but this time she said all LGs are speakers”.
If you need to get a hold of Nada just Google her name. I’m sure you will find a lot about her and if I forgot to mention any name please let me know.
Thank you all for the photos and enjoy the recap.
BEHIND THE SCENE:
After the meetup was officially over, there were only Rahmat, David (from Spain), and I who stayed in the chat room. David asked questions with his very limited English and tried to show us his 360 photos. Thank goodness Rahmat understood what he was trying to ask because the problem Davis has is the same as Rahmat. For about 15 minutes they worked on the problem and both finally agreed to exchange email addresses so they can use Google translator to solve it.
This will be part of the Study Guides for Women Empowerment Challenge #StateChallenge meetup scheduled for April 9th 2022 at 11:30 am EST run by @Denise_Barlock and @jayasimha78
